The 2016 Competitiveness Pact contained a provision to boost competitiveness and improve employees’ productivity by adding half an hour to the workweek without any salary increase. This legal arrangement is called “competitiveness hours” (Kiky Tunnit) and was implemented by certain industries according to their productivity needs. Over time it raised some criticism from the trade union’s side, who tried to negotiate the terms of this provision.

On 21 September 2020, the Helsinki Labour Court (decision TT 2020:79) settled the case of a trade union trying to put pressure on the employer by means of industrial action with the aim of renegotiating certain clauses of the collective agreement in force, notably on the competitiveness hours and the union’s membership fee collection.

Since in the Finnish industrial relations context industrial action is not allowed during the duration of a collective agreement, this behaviour was considered a breach of the duty of peace and the union was fined. This occurs even when the negotiation of a new collective agreement is on-going but did not achieve any outcome yet, as detailed in the Collective Bargaining Act.

The complaint was presented by the Finnish Forest Industries (Metsäteollisuus ry) against the Finnish Trade Union in the Electricity Industry (Teollisuusliitto ry. Sähkölaojen ammattiliitto ry), with whom, in 2011, the company signed an agreement for the electricity maintenance department.  

The complainant requested the Court to fine the trade union for the amount of the legal costs, by EUR 4,050, plus the interests.